Masterpiece Cakeshop refuses gay wedding: Readers share their stories

On Friday, we chronicled the story of Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig on our sister blog, Cafe Society. The young gay couple plans to get married in Provincetown, Massachusetts in September, and last week, the guys were searching for a baker to create the multi-tiered rainbow cake they'll serve to guests at their local reception. That's when Jack Phillips, owner of Lakewood's Masterpiece Cakeshop, told them no. His business doesn't serve gay weddings, he said.

It turns out his bakery doesn't serve a lot of functions. Although Westword has still been unable to get a comment from anyone at Masterpiece about the accusations, readers haven't been nearly so shy. While some argue that Phillips and his business are simply executing their right to refuse service, others have related their own stories of being turned away from Masterpiece.

For the full story on Mullins and Craig, visit our original post. Note: They've since ordered a cake at what Mullins jokes is "the gayest cake shop we could think of:" Le Bakery Sensual.

In the meantime, read these additional takes on the shop's service:

"This is the same bakery that refused to make a 50th Birthday cake for my mom with a tarot card of 'mother earth goddess' on it," writes our Girlscout of an experience she had there in 1996. "I brought the tarot card with me to show them so they could just copy the image, with all their mastery, onto the cake. It was a beautiful, positive image that I wanted for my mom who loved this card in particular. They said they would NOT make a cake with a heretical image. I was shocked. I told them to f*** off (immature me) and I'll take my business elsewhere (mature me)."

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Although her experience centered on the spirit, her sexual identity prompted an even stronger reaction when she read about Mullins and Craig. "Additionally, I am a lesbian and had been 'out' well before this incident," she writes. "The feeling of shock and judgement by these 'masters' was unbelievable and something I'm apparently still reeling from, as this article hits close to home. Maybe it was not the tarot card at all. Maybe it was my short haircut and Umbro shorts."

Another commenter pointed us to this February 2010 review of the bakery on CitySearch.com: "Judgmental Conservative Service. My fiance and I went in after hearing good things about this bakery. Our intentions were to use this bakery for our wedding cupcakes. We were met by a friendly woman who quickly turned holy-roller judgmental when she found out we were doing a Halloween-themed wedding. Judge not, lest ye be judged."

What if Mullins and Craig had requested a cake for a different situation? One commenter tried that out, too. "He said he would not sell me a (gay) wedding cake for $2,000, but he would do it if it was a birthday cake," writes wwelch000. "It was a really ridiculous conversation."

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